Soviet prisoner murders by Nazis still unacknowledged – German president

Mass murders of Soviet prisoners at the hands of the Nazis in Germany during WWII haven’t been taken into account, said German President Joachim Gauck, praising Soviet Army troops, who are owed “gratitude and respect”.

About five and a half million Soviet soldiers were held by the
Nazis, less than half of whom survived, Gauck said in the
interview to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

“We’ve truly done a lot in coming to terms with our Nazi
past. But [there] are some victims that haven't been taken into
account at all or sufficiently – such as the Soviet prisoners of
war.”

According to Gauck, these Soviet people are in an “oblivion
zone” when it comes to collective memory, and this is
unfair.

Gauck has praised Soviet Army soldiers who played their part in
ending the WWII.

“On May 8 we were liberated – not only [by], but also
through, the people of the Soviet Union. Therefore we owe them
gratitude and respect,” Gauck said. However, he added that
after 1945, Soviet liberators stayed in their country and were
responsible for “bondage, repression and persecution in the
east of Germany.”

Germany should consider paying WWII reparations to Greece – Gauck

In the interview the German President also said he understands
Athens’ calls for WWII reparations, saying that Berlin should
examine its historical responsibility to Greece.

“We are not only people who are living in this day and age
but we’re also the descendants of those who left behind a trail
of destruction in Europe during World War Two – in Greece, among
other places, where we shamefully knew little about it for so
long.”

According to Gauck, it's the right thing to do “for a
history-conscious country like ours to consider what
possibilities there might be for reparations.”

Many Greeks blame Germany, as the country's biggest creditor, for
the tough austerity measures and record high unemployment it has
faced after getting two international bailouts total worth €240
billion.

In April Athens ruled that Germany owes Greece no less than
€278.7 billion in World War II reparations.

Berlin earlier flatly denied it owes Athens any more money,
saying it already paid Greece war damages of $25 million in the
1950s, equivalent to $220 million today, and also paid out 115
million Deutschmarks (a sum worth around $230 million today), to
victims of Nazi crimes in the early 1960s.

After Nazi forces took control of Greece in 1941, the stage was
set for one of the bloodiest confrontations of World War II as
Greek resistance fighters put up a fierce struggle to end the
occupation. They were powerless, however, to prevent the Third
Reich from extracting an interest-free 476 million Reichsmarks
loan from the Greek central bank, which devastated the Greek
economy.

‘Germans have a special responsibility to be aware of what we did
during the Nazi era’ – Merkel

Gauck’s words were echoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who also
said that Germany should not forget its Nazi past and try to be
sensitive to those nations that were affected in the World War
II.

“There's no drawing a line under the history,” Merkel
said. “We can see that in the Greece debate and in other
European countries. We Germans have a special responsibility to
be alert, sensitive and aware of what we did during the Nazi era
and about lasting damage caused in other countries. I've got
tremendous sympathy for that.”

Merkel said that she was looking forward her May 10 meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“To date, there is huge controversy between Russia and us
[Germany], including the issue of what is happening in Ukraine.
However, it is important to me to jointly lay wreaths on the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier on May 10 with the Russian
President,” she said.

Chancellor Merkel, as well as other leaders including US Barack
Obama and UK David Cameron, will not attend the May 9
celebrations in Moscow amid tensions with Ukraine.